“Goddess help us. What happened to her? Where’s Reed?”
“I don’t know. Out on the field still, but surely he’s felt this by now.”
“The healers are through here. Come on.”
I dropped my sword and carried her more gently through to a large, open room where healers were already working on people on every surface.
“Olivia! Emergency!” Leigh yelled, not wasting time hunting her up.
Less than two seconds later, the diminutive redhead appeared in front of us.
“Oh, Fi, what happened to you? Get her on this table. Quickly.” The second I laid her out on the stretcher-style table, Iwas shoved back, Olivia not so meek when she had a patient. She barked orders any alpha would be proud of as she worked, and seconds later, a big, green bubble appeared around Fiona.
Leigh turned back to me, sadness and anger warring on her delicate features. “We’ve got her. Get back out there and find Reed. A mate’s touch can help.”
I nodded, spun, and charged back to retrieve my sword. I leaned down to scoop it up, my mind on Elodie and the conversation we were going to have, once all this ended, about how many risks she was taking.
That was when I felt it. The bond in my chest that I’d closed—which Elodie and I had agreed to leave closed for the duration of the battle, so neither of us was distracted by the other’s thoughts and slipped—began to freeze my chest, as if someone had pressed a block of dry ice into my bare flesh.
I was confused and worried, but my wolfpanicked.
Open it! Now! She needs us!
If that cold was coming from Elodie… Dread filled me.
I wrenched the bond open, sweat breaking out on my forehead at the effort it took.
The cold enveloped me seconds later, spreading out from the bond like frost creeping across a lake. It was all-encompassing, entombing me where I stood.
I had to get to her. Something was very, very wrong. But my knees had gone weak, my eyesight going blurry.
My wolf snarled in my head, and then he burst from my skin in one engulfing wave of heat and pain as my bones snapped and my body re-formed itself.
He took control, a red haze over our eyes as he raced from the castle. Even from the back seat, I could feel that burning cold warring against the wolf’s natural heat.
Friends and enemies alike were a blur he wove through, rocketing at full speed toward our mate.
I still didn’t know what was happening. I could only feel his urgency that we needed to be at her side.
We spotted the maidens first, in a circle, each of them with a butterfly sword in hand, pointed outward like a human porcupine.
The wolf arrowed toward the young blonde one, whose name he didn’t concern himself with. She gasped and jerked aside at the last minute, her inexperience making her vulnerable. Then he leapt, soaring over the Alpha’s prone form to land at our fallen mate’s side.
He lay directly on top of her, licking her face and nuzzling her cheeks, whining sharply as he tried to rouse her.
But she was cold as ice and just as immovable.
Time meant little to a wolf, so I couldn’t say how long we lay there before she opened her eyes. He licked her again, and she coughed weakly.
“Brute, you’re crushing me,” she whispered hoarsely. My wolf was on his feet immediately, dropping at her side instead of on top of her. But he wouldn’t let his body lose contact with hers for a single second.
“S’okay. We’re okay.”
Her hand was weak, and the pulse I could hear from her wrist was thready as she lifted a trembling hand to my wolf’s cheek.
Brielle dropped to Elodie’s side and swore as she took in her pallid complexion, feeling her throat for her weak pulse.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t think… I should never have pulled so much. I’ll… I don’t know, I’ll try to fix it.”
